Dividing Fractions Using Pictures!

First, you have to start with ½ of one whole… ½ ½ 1/2

How many ¼ are in ½ of our whole? Now we divide our whole into fourths 2!!! How many ¼ are in ½ of our whole?

What about mixed numbers… Let’s try Start by drawing 1 ¾ (1 whole= 4/4) (3/4)

Now let’s divide our picture into eighths (1 whole= 8/8) (3/4= 6/8)

Now let’s see how many groups of 3/8 we can get from the shaded part (1 ¾) So we got 4 full groups of 3 and 2 out of the 3 we needed left over…

But what if the first denominator is larger? Go ahead and draw the first fraction… Let’s try

Since we can’t split our 9ths into 3rds, we will make our second fraction have a common denominator of 9.

Now let’s see how many sets of 3/9 we can get out of our shaded area (5/9) We have one full set of 3 and 2/3 of another set…

Now you try! Did you start out with this? Draw

Did you divide into 8ths?

Did you find how many groups of 3 you could make? 2!

Let’s try another… Draw

Did your picture turn out like mine? 1 2 3 4 5 6 2/3 Our answer=